The battery died on my truck and it was my turn to pick up all the kids (6) at school. I called my neighbors - the Ryzchecks* - and Mr. Ryzcheck came over to give me a jump.
I had the cables all set to go at my end, and he hops out of his truck, *barefoot *to hook in his end. He kept on getting out and fiddling with the clamps.
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmm. Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
Can I say I was really disappointed when he wasn’t jolted to death and not grounded. Yet, I feared any possible dent in my truck from him being jolted into my side panel from the shock of it all and being late to pick up the kidlets at school, who then would give me grieve over their agonies ( perceived and real).
The fact this guy is a supervisor of actual human beings ( at the post office, no less) just boggles my mind.
Nice guy, good neighbors and all, but DUDE! You’re playing with Electricity! :eek: :eek: :eek:
Moral of the Story: jump the dead battery to the farm tractor to save you the worry of a near death experience on your own property in the future.
*Mr. Ryzcheck would be the name of the lower class neighbor/friend of Molly Ringwalds parents in one of the teen movies she did.
I think most folks injured jumping cars are burned by an exploding battery rather than electrocuted.
It’s only 12 volts, and DC at that. Edison hyped AC to electrocute folks to dis Westinghouse. Edison favored DC power transmission because it was safer.
Honestly, the biggest danger of being barefoot was stepping on something sharp. 12V is not going to hurt you, it’s perfectly safe to grab the bare terminals even if he was buck nekkid.
Just to be sure Shirley hates me, and calls me a fat old bastard in every post even though I am not fat, barefoot ain’t in it, because the automobiles aren’t grounded. They are insulated by the rubber tires.
This is true, but it can still leave a bit of a mark.
So my wife’s co-worker’s husband was wrenching on a friend’s car the other day, tightening the battery cables. In his wisdom, he knew that there was a slim chance that the wrench could hit the other battery terminal while he’s doing this, so he covers the end with his hand.
Now, this is where I’m unlcear as to if the car was running at the time, and Mr. Bojangles ain’t sayin’, but he managed to get, in series… Negative → Wrench → Wedding ring → Positive.
Got to see the resultant “flesh wound”, which basically looks like a leech tried to deep-throat his finger – deep, ring-width lack of flesh.The ring’s kinda toast too; You can see where the arcs occured from the deep pits on opposite sides. Pretty impressive. Apparently also painful as all get out.
Yeah, I don’t get it either. I’ve grabbed both posts of a car battery directly. You can’t even feel the tiny current that 12v can push through you from hand to hand. There’s even more resistance going out the bottoms of the feet. The fact that the
They told me in Instrumentation class that it only takes 25mA through your heart to kill you. That’s 25 thousands of an Ampere, but it’s passing directly through your heart.
I seem to recall my resistance being about 45k from hand to hand; E=I*R using 12v gives you .27 mA from hand to hand, or a tenth of the fatal current.
However, I did notice last month when cleaning Mrs. Plant’s terminals…auto battery terminals… that steel wool burns quite impressively with 12v across it.
Well, that, and the fact that Edison held the patents for DC power transmission, and made lots of money from it. Money that would be lost to others if customers switched to AC power transmission.
Most authorities clearly give that as the main reason Edison favored DC transmission. For example: “Edison was not disposed to lose all his patent royalties.” from War of the currents - Wikipedia
P.S. It’s generally recognized today that at the voltage levels used in any practical power transmission system, there is no difference in safety between DC and AC.
Well I guess you might hurt your toe if you dropped ihe cables on your bare foot. But trust me there is zero chance of death because you jump started a car barefoot.
